Sometimes a claim is made that Christopher Columbus sailed west to prove the world was round and not flat, but that wasn't the case at all. Even in ancient times sailors knew that the Earth was round and ancient scientists not only suspected it was a sphere, but even estimated its size. Measuring...

The Earth is in constant motion. Each day the earth makes one complete rotation. Each year, the earth makes one orbit of the sun. The first motion is obvious. The second one, however, is muh harder to notice except over a much longer period and can be made visible only by some time and some...

We observe the different angles between the sun, earth, and moon by the phases of the moon we see each month. Students, acting as the earth, will see differences in light and dark sides of their hand-held moon.

Different colored objects absorb energy at different rates. That is partially due to albedo. Albedo is the amount of reflection from a surface. The demonstration will show that water in a dark colored can will have a higher temperature after exposure to the sun than water in a shiny can.

The earth receives its heat from the sun in the form of radiation. Many in the animal kingdom lay out in the sun to absorb this form of energy to warm their bodies. This form of energy is vital to life on this planet. The student will learn how the sun transfers heat to the earth through radiation.